In honor of Tupac Shakur’s birthday, we’ve collected a few of our favorite speeches by the rapper and songwriter who was killed in 1996. Take the day to let his words on racism and inequality in the US wash over you, listen to his early 90s tracks on your lunch break, toast 2Pac with a tallboy before you go to bed.

“At a certain point people are going to revolt … ‘cause you know, we’re like ‘is America going to help us … ever?’”

“It is not a time to cool out, I have to be a reminder.”

“I don't care if you're a lawyer, if you're a man, if you're an African-American, if you're whatever the fuck you think you are: we thugs to these motherfuckers.”

“Teenagers have a lot of responsibility, and we’re given a horrible world. The gift that we’re given when we have to take over, they’re leaving this world in bad shape.”

Ripley Soprano is a co-owner and co-conspirator of this here magazine.